#3 on Hi-Time's Top Spanish Wines of 2025
Well-aged Riojas are a treat for old-world wine-lovers: at their best they offer beautifully textured mouthfeels and a complex array of spicy and savory flavors that go toe-to-toe with a mellowed-out fruit character. This one is all Tempranillo from an organically-farmed vineyard named "El Puntido," which lies high up on a broad stretch of gently sloping benchland between the Cantabrian Mountain peaks and the Ebro River.
Being perched up here makes for fresher-toned wines, and 2013's long, slow growing season made for a true Rioja of yore! After a long aging before release, it's evolved into a swirl of flavors and textures that make it an exciting wine to taste. It combines a medium-full body, balsamy fruit and a fantastic feeling of volume and energy with its juicy acidity and sapid mineral sensations. Share it with friends and family through the holidays, perhaps accompanied by a richly-flavored roast!
WINE ADVOCATE 97 POINTS - "The 2013 El Puntido Gran Reserva started very shy and closed; it took time to open up to slowly unfurl the more tertiary notes, despite its youth. It reveals great complexity and nuance. It's a triumph over the adverse conditions of a challenging year like 2013, a year with a lot of rain and a cold summer with lots of cloudy days when people thought the grapes were not going to ripen. It has a classical nose with notes of cherries in liqueur, cigar ash, decayed leaves and truffles with the spiciness from the 28 months in new French oak barrels and a lactic touch. The palate is polished, sleek and elegant. In 2018, they changed the fermentation vessels from stainless steel to concrete, but we'll have to wait a few years to see that... 5,000 bottles produced. It has been in bottle since March 2016. It should be long lived and make old bones." - Luis Guttierez
Well-aged Riojas are a treat for old-world wine-lovers: at their best they offer beautifully textured mouthfeels and a complex array of spicy and savory flavors that go toe-to-toe with a mellowed-out fruit character. This one is all Tempranillo from an organically-farmed vineyard named "El Puntido," which lies high up on a broad stretch of gently sloping benchland between the Cantabrian Mountain peaks and the Ebro River.
Being perched up here makes for fresher-toned wines, and 2013's long, slow growing season made for a true Rioja of yore! After a long aging before release, it's evolved into a swirl of flavors and textures that make it an exciting wine to taste. It combines a medium-full body, balsamy fruit and a fantastic feeling of volume and energy with its juicy acidity and sapid mineral sensations. Share it with friends and family through the holidays, perhaps accompanied by a richly-flavored roast!
WINE ADVOCATE 97 POINTS - "The 2013 El Puntido Gran Reserva started very shy and closed; it took time to open up to slowly unfurl the more tertiary notes, despite its youth. It reveals great complexity and nuance. It's a triumph over the adverse conditions of a challenging year like 2013, a year with a lot of rain and a cold summer with lots of cloudy days when people thought the grapes were not going to ripen. It has a classical nose with notes of cherries in liqueur, cigar ash, decayed leaves and truffles with the spiciness from the 28 months in new French oak barrels and a lactic touch. The palate is polished, sleek and elegant. In 2018, they changed the fermentation vessels from stainless steel to concrete, but we'll have to wait a few years to see that... 5,000 bottles produced. It has been in bottle since March 2016. It should be long lived and make old bones." - Luis Guttierez
